How User Experience Services Impacts The Automotive Industry?

Automakers are developing the next generation of vehicles with user experience services in mind. The convergence of physical and digital will result in unparalleled user experiences, fueled by electrification, connection, self-driving technologies, and fluid ownership structures. The most successful manufacturers will integrate technology and services in ways that are both useful and enjoyable for the end-user. 

Automobiles of the future will be more like our smartphones than the cars we know today- machines made up of gears, fluids, and hundred of moving components. Cars will instead be networked gadgets on wheels, part of a vast, complicated network of people, devices, and infrastructure. Automakers are already preparing for this transformation, in which digital and physical merge and user experience development services will become increasingly crucial in assisting people in navigating the environment. 

Industry 4.0 Is A Hybrid Of Digital And Physical Processes

In what analysts refer to as the fourth industrial revolution, or industry 4.0, the physical world around us will become increasingly computerized and networked. Automobiles are only one illustration of how this shift is occurring. We may gauge this by counting the number of lines of code that automobiles now have. Cars had an average of 1 million lines of code two decades ago. Experts believe that during the next several years, automobiles will have at least 200 million lines of code.

The increasingly digital framework presents new problems for automakers. Bridging two radically distinct manufacturing cycles from the automotive and software worlds is a huge problem for established manufacturers. An automobile can now take anything from 2 to 5 years from idea to manufacturing. However, custom software development cycles are quick and iterative, with new features continuously being introduced and old functions that no longer fulfil user demands being replaced. The disparity is particularly noticeable in today's in-car entertainment systems. User interfaces come and go swiftly, which implies that digital entertainment systems may be obsolete by the time automobiles hit the market. As a result, infotainment systems are frequently rated as the least enjoyable element by automobile owners. This disparity, among other things, underscores the difficulties that big car businesses, generally known as original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), confront in moving to a new era of mobility.

Ux For Automobiles

New technology lays the path for new mobility models in the automobile sector. While software skill is a must, mobility will ultimately be about usability, trust, and joy. In the future, user experience (UX) may become a differentiating feature for automobiles. The software sector gave birth to the concept of user experience. At its foundation, user experience development services (UX) is about creating solutions that fulfil human needs, typically via the use of technology. Frequently, technology solutions are offered to a market, only for their inventors to realize that there is a mismatch in the market, product, or just incorrect timing.

In this way, user experience (UX) provides a user-centered strategy as well as a set of procedures for automakers to test new concepts and solutions across a mix of new digital, physical, and service offerings.

Automotive Trends And Ux Potential In The Near Future

How can manufacturers adopt a user-centered strategy to fuel automotive innovation?

Below, we will look at four areas of near-term growth, based mostly on public conversation, and quickly highlight how User experience development services might help automakers uncover potential for innovation.

1. Electric Vehicles Are Becoming Increasingly Inexpensive

Electric cars (EVs) will become more economical as battery components become more affordable. Bloomberg expects that worldwide EV sales would reach 11 million in 2025, and 30 million in 2030. Driving an EV is—or should be—significantly different from driving a car with an internal combustion engine (ICE). Unlike gasoline-powered vehicles, many EVs offer single-pedal driving (no need to transfer gears), quicker acceleration, and simpler auto maintenance (without the upkeep of a complex system of gears and moving parts).

In truth, technology never evolves in isolation, therefore entire ecosystems will form around EVs. Vehicle charging infrastructure is one such example. Because charging an EV takes significantly longer than fueling a gas-powered car, there is potential to assist drivers in making use of this idle time. UX can assist us in understanding things like where drivers want to charge their vehicles and what drivers want to do while their vehicles are charging. Today, we observe Tesla owners parked on the outside of shopping center parking areas. As EVs become more popular, the charging experience will surely improve from what it is now.

2. Automobiles Evolve To Become Digital Platforms That Are Linked To The Internet

According to a recent consumer survey, drivers expect their automobiles to have the same communication and entertainment capabilities as their phones. Automobile manufacturers are reacting by developing designs for huge touchscreens, voice recognition, gesture recognition, and heads-up displays to let drivers access content while driving. Infotainment systems, which incorporate music, navigation, and phone integration, have a lengthy history dating back to the 1930s when the first in-car radio was introduced. From there, navigation systems were launched in the 1980s, followed by hard drives and Bluetooth systems in the 2000s. Recently, there has been a lot of talk about 5G, which many people believe will enable high-speed mobile access for networked devices in the future.

3. Automobiles Begin To Drive Themselves

In the form of enhanced driver assistance systems, self-driving technology is already present in today's automobiles (ADAS). Adaptive cruise control (on highways) and automated parking can assist drivers get more comfortable with the concept of semi-autonomous and driverless vehicles. Automobile manufacturers may use these opportunities to educate consumers about the potential of autonomous technology and to create experiences that prioritize trust and safety. According to a recent AAA research, at least two out of every three drivers who use ADAS features report trusting the technology in their vehicles. Positive experiences can help customers feel more comfortable with self-driving technologies by playing a significant cultural role.

4. The Ownership Of A Car Becomes More Flexible

In recent years, car ownership has taken many forms. Vehicle owners can make a living or supplement their income by driving people and products around. Peer-to-peer systems such as Turo and Getaround allow car owners to hire out their automobiles, while ZipCar allows users to rent cars in half-hour increments from its fleets. These shared mobility choices assist automobile owners and customers in determining which mobility models work best for them in their individual lifestyles.

UX can play a critical role in assisting manufacturers in understanding the user journeys associated with various shared mobility models.

Insights Into The Future And Their Consequences For Ux

If we assume that technology continues to advance in these four areas, as many automakers and experts predict today, the world will look drastically different before we know it.   According to RethinkX, an independent think tank, by 2030, "95 per cent of U.S. passenger  vmiles travelled would be handled by on-demand autonomous electric cars owned by fleets rather than people, under a new business model known as 'transport-as-a-service' (TaaS)." This appears to mirror what many in the automobile industry are anticipating: a transition to an electrified, self-driving future. In this future situation, being driven may be more practical than driving oneself. If these assumptions are correct, UX will play a critical role in assisting businesses in providing pleasurable, meaningful, and tailored experiences that blend the digital and physical. 

Wrapping Up

The deeper into the future we look, the more difficult it becomes to foresee consumer demands. However, it is obvious that user experience development services (UX) will become increasingly crucial in the automotive business in the future.